All My Secrets
by rooks78
Summary: Julie comes into the garage late after a day at KaneCo, and only one other Burner's awake to greet her.


It had been a particularly long day at KaneCo, which Julie deduced with pros and cons. On one hand, the citizens of Motorcity had one night of peace to themselves for once. On the other, Kane could be pulling in all his forces for the day for a reason. Maybe a new upgrade to make them regenerate or grow extra arms. _Joy,_ she thought on her way to report to the guys. Chances were they were in the garage, most likely working on upgrades of their own. She checked the time: 12:50 AM.

_Man, hope the guys won't mind me burning the midnight oil. _

When she arrived, the lights on at the Burners' garage were fewer than usual. Jacob was most likely asleep, as the food stand was shut down. Julie stepped into the garage and noticed something very weird. Everything was… quiet. No familiar sound of a spanner adjusting a gear, an engine revving, or even Roth's chirpy buzzing.

"Kwaaaa… Hya-pown!"

Well, that racket wasn't from any car, but was just as noisy. Julie followed the sound and found Texas on a sofa, gleefully punching the air and making battle grunts and mumbled taunts between snores. Dutch wasn't far off; he was in Whiptail's driver seat, barely clinging onto the screwdriver on his right hand as he lightly dozed with his head stuck on the wheel. _Poor guy must've fallen asleep just as he was finishing up,_ Julie mused. When she turned her attention to finding her other teammates, it didn't take long for her to find Chuck near a window, his head resting on the wall as he kept fussing, probably from Texas' particular sleep patterns. And like Dutch, he must've fallen asleep while he was still working, since his screen was still on. Julie went to his side and turned it off, and was about to head outside in order to find-

"Jules!"

She stopped at her tracks, barely bumping into the lumpy front of a tall figure.

"Mike, that you?" She couldn't see much, but Mike did step under one of the few lit headlights in the garage.

"Hey, thought you already turned in," he said. Julie noticed that he was carrying several heavily-patched quilts.

"Well, day ran a little late. Looks like the same could be said for you guys," she answered.

He responded with a light chuckle. "Yeah, we were staying up because we wanted to try out some new mods. Before we knew it, streets were dark and Jacob said that it was bedtime."

"But you guys kept burning the midnight oil 'til you conked out, huh?" Julie asked with a playful smirk.

"Dutch was the first, Texas tried to shout that he wasn't sleepy until he passed out the next second, and when Chuck finally gave in, I thought it'd be best to make sure they didn't catch a draft or something."

Julie returned to his reply with a small smile and wordlessly grabbed one of the quilts from his arms.

"Thanks," he said before resting the other blankets on Chuck, then Texas. Julie did the same for Dutch, and made sure to lean his head against his seat so that he wouldn't wake up with a neck cramp. When she was done, Mike walked towards her with a smile to say "good work."

"You're going to bed now, then?" she asked. Mike strangely enough, didn't give a straightforward answer. He seemed to pause briefly in what he had to say before answering with "I think I'll have a walk around or something. Only once in a blue moon do those KaneBots actually leave us alone for a whole night." He stepped out, and gestured for her to join him, and she accepted his invitation. They decided to circle around the garage, and after a few minutes, she made her report.

"He might be upgrading his whole platoon right now, though. I didn't pick up much on it, but he could be going for something big."

"Bigger than what he's already thrown at us?" Mike snarked with a raised brow.

"By his definition, I guess. Next thing you know, his robots might spit out three-headed aliens when you burst them open," she joked, chortling lightly at the image. Mike returned it with a smirk of his own, but both soon grew more solemn. They knew that their little scenario might not be far from the truth, and how much more real the damage could be.

But if anyone knew how to lighten the mind of such things, Mike was your man.

"But who knows; with that many heads maybe those aliens will be smart enough to not pick a fight with us."

"Better than mindless ShockBots in that way, I suppose," added Julie. They shared a laugh, though Julie could pick up that Mike's sounded just a bit weary. She then noticed his eyes looking a little glazed and his posture more slouched than usual. And perhaps more startling, she couldn't see any space between their elbows.

And in that moment, Julie recalled later, she could have just gone away with "you sound tired" or tell him to turn in with a friendly pat on the shoulders. But… whatever urge of empathy Mike's tired state switched on inside her, it made her pull on his arm so that they both stopped walking. She stood on tip-toe and raised her chin, until finally reaching up to his face. She softly laid her lips on the square of his jaw, and both stayed still for a few gently-passing seconds. When she parted from his face, she saw that his arms had closed around her, making her stay as close to him as she had before. So close that Julie could feel Mike's breath as he could with hers.

And then she had to go and stumble because she couldn't be on her soles for five more seconds.

"Sorry" and "careful" were thrown around them as they tried to regain footing in the real world. Julie could feel her pulse quickening, and pushed herself out of Mike's hold. And of course, her instinct was to laugh it off.

"Well, guess it really is about time we got some sleep, huh?" she asked shakily. Julie turned away and ducked her head as she fast-walked, while mentally cursing herself for being so impulsive. _For goodness' sake, you're supposed to make sure nothing out-of-line happens here!_

"Jules, wait."

She turned, scrambling through her brain for whatever lame excuse she could throw out, but grew distracted by how close Mike was approaching. When he stopped, he was close enough that her nose was almost touching his chest. She looked up, and saw a new look on his face. He looked at her in probably the most gentle and reassuring way she'd ever seen him look, and her nerves suddenly weren't so shaky. He steadied her shoulders with his hands as they held their gaze. But then, it was Mike's turn to stumble in what he had to say, as if he knew that he had to hold her steady but didn't plan out the finishing touch. _Just like him,_ she thought. She gave out a light, bemused snort, and placed her palms on Mike's sleeves.

"Look, I was the one that got you out of the blue like that. I should be the one who wants to crawl under a rock right now; it's not like you," she assured him.

"W-well, it was a bit… unexpected, but," he slid his hands from her shoulders until they reached to her wrists, "what you did really took my mind off that alien doomsday story, if that was what you were going for."

She couldn't help but grin at him as she replied, "Well then, mission accomplished." He gave a small chuckle in his throat, and then slowly leaned down to the left side of her face. His lips honestly barely grazed on her left cheek, but he kept there for as long as she had. To Julie, it was pretty fascinating that something could feel so close but still made her feel so safe. When he let go, he gave her a foot's distance, save for his right hand on her left wrist. They smiled back at each other, both just relieved that the space between them wasn't nearly so awkward now.

"Good night, Jules." He released her wrist, and Julie saw him walk back to the garage, smiling gently to herself. When she couldn't see his back anymore, she decided to collect her thoughts on the drive home. As she drove past the streets and dim lights of the underground city, her thoughts were on Mike. They were first of simply soul-resting relief that tonight hadn't gone for the worse, but then they took a more grounded turn when she thought of how the worst was yet to come.

She knew it'd be inevitable that the gang would find out her true connection with Kane, so she tried to live up to be the best her team could want from her; the inside agent and the voice of reason that kept them alive from both her dad and sometimes each other. And she certainly did try to make Kane see some reason, but every time she did ended with either ignorance or a shout to the face. Come to think of it, she never felt totally safe in either of her two lives. Sure, she had Claire to keep her head from bursting open with this secret, but that wouldn't stop what the guys would go through if they knew who she really was. Would they understand, or at least listen?

_"W-well, it was a bit… unexpected, but…"_ No, of course Mike, heck any of them, would just be nervous and awkward. But, still… They did put so much of their trust in her everyday, and by God she gave her all to live up to that. And now, Mike put so much confidence in her that he'd even return a random non-kiss. Her pulse quickened with each time she recounted it, along with a flood of reassurance and a sense of mutual trust like she'd never felt before. For now, it helped her see the bright side of things: one day, when the Burners found what they wanted, whatever she wanted to happen between her and their wonderful hotshot leader might come to be, however long it might take.


End file.
